cyprian nyakundi sentenced to four months in jail or pay Sh300,000 for disobeying court orders

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Controversial blogger Cyprian Nyakundi has been fined a Sh 300,000 or serve a four months imprisonment for disobeying court orders restraining him from publishing defamatory statements on social media against Safaricom CEO Bob Collymore.

While delivering her ruling, Justice Lucy Njuguna said that Nyakundi intentionally defied court orders requiring him to present himself for mitigation and sentencing.

Justice Njuguna added that the blogger gave no justifiable reasons for failing to appear before court.

The Judge also ruled that Nyakundi demonstrated that he had no respect for court orders and the court could not condone deliberate abuse of its authority and dignity.

Nyakundi’s plea for leniency on grounds that he was remorseful was dismissed by the judge.

The blogger’s plea for a non-custodial sentence on grounds that he was not a flight risk was also dismissed.

Nyakundi had been allowed the opportunity to file sworn statements but Collymore’s lawyer Nani Mungai objected saying that there was no plausible reason to justify his continued abuse of her client on personal blog.

Collymore was seeking orders to have Nyakundi committed to civil jail for six months for disobeying an injunction issued on July 18, last year, blocking him from publishing defamatory articles concerning corruption in the media industry in Kenya.

The blogger was however alleged to have carried the offending story on August 1, last year, and failed to apologize and withdraw it.

Last December, the judge has dismissed Nyakundi’s assertion that he did not maliciously discredit the Safaricom CEO and his predecessor Michael Joseph.